Youngsters live life as it was at CHB Settlers Museum

Museum manager Jana Uhlirova with Waipawa School Year 3 students Ruby Malcolm and Noah Waite, both 7, in the interactive exhibition's classroom display. Photo / Clinton Llewellyn

Everything old will be new again as school children are transported 150 years back in time at an upcoming exhibition at the CHB Settlers Museum.

For the first time in five years, the museum in Waipawa is revisiting its very successful Hands on: Early Settler Life interactive exhibition, which opens this Saturday.

First held in 2011 and then again in 2013, the exhibition proved very popular with school groups and kindergartens, museum manager/curator Jana Uhlirova said.

"This is an interactive exhibition designed for children to learn how early settlers in New Zealand used to live 150 years ago.

"In previous years, almost every school from Central Hawke's Bay, as well as some schools from Hastings and Havelock North, Dannevirke and Woodville have visited," she said.

Uhlirova said all visitors to the exhibition, not just the youngsters, could experience making butter using a butter churn, shop in an old-time store using an old cash register, weigh goods on old-fashioned scales and learn about the old British money that was used in New Zealand.

In the wash-house display, visitors can try washing clothes by hand, using a washboard and soap.

Meanwhile, the classroom display in the exhibition would demonstrate how strict rules applied in old schools - not just for students but for teachers as well.

"Children can try writing with nib pens and ink, quills or slate pencils, and learn old-style handwriting.

"More fun could be writing a letter on an old typewriter or sewing a reusable shopping bag using hand-operated sewing machines. And of course, there is the most popular activity of all - dressing up in old-fashioned clothing," Uhlirova said.

The exhibition opens this Saturday, June 23, from 10am to 3pm, and runs until October.

Entry this Saturday is free and, weather permitting, there will be an outside display of working engines, agricultural equipment and a blacksmith as well as a sausage sizzle.

• Schools interested in group visits can contact 06 8577288 or email chbmuseum@xtra.co.nz